Operation Epic Fury: Pentagon Confirms $25 Billion Munitions Burn Rate Over Eight-Week Iran Campaign

Technical Summary

On 29 April 2026 the Pentagon’s Chief Financial Officer Jules Hurst III testified to the House Armed Services Committee that Operation Epic Fury — the joint US–Israeli military campaign against Iran that commenced on 28 February 2026 — has obligated approximately $25 billion to date, with the “bulk of the figure” devoted to ordnance and only a minority share to operations and personnel. US casualties stand at 13 service members killed in action and 400 wounded; the operation has run for eight weeks and remains active. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and Joint Chiefs Chairman General Dan Caine confirmed a forthcoming supplemental funding request to Congress, set against the FY27 baseline budget proposal of $1.5 trillion.

The arithmetic produces a sustained obligation rate of approximately $3.1 billion per week, of which a conservative two-thirds — roughly $2.0 billion per week, or $16 billion across the eight weeks — is attributable to munitions. That order of magnitude is consistent only with the high-end air-launched and sea-launched stand-off inventory: the Tomahawk Land Attack Missile (TLAM) Block V at approximately $2.0 million per round, the AGM-158B/C-3 Joint Air-to-Surface Standoff Missile Extended Range (JASSM-ER) at approximately $1.5 million, the GBU-57A/B Massive Ordnance Penetrator (MOP) at approximately $20 million per weapon, and the GBU-31(V)1/B Joint Direct Attack Munition (JDAM) at approximately $25,000 per kit plus the Mk-84 2,000–lb (907 kg) general-purpose body. Insensitive Munitions (IM) compliance under STANAG 4439 and AOP-39 means most of the inventory now carries IMX-101 or PBXN-109 fills rather than legacy Tritonal or Comp B.

Approximately, at this day, we are spending about $25 billion on Operation Epic Fury, most of that is in munitions — a sustained obligation rate of $3.1 billion per week across an eight-week campaign. Jules Hurst III, Pentagon CFO, House Armed Services Committee testimony, 29 April 2026

Analysis of Effects

An eight-week, $16 billion munitions burn implies expenditure on the order of 1,500–3,000 stand-off precision-guided munitions (PGM), depending on weapon mix. Industrial-base replacement timelines are the binding constraint. Tomahawk production at Raytheon RMS Tucson runs at approximately 90 rounds per month under the Multi-Year Procurement (MYP) authority; JASSM/LRASM combined production at Lockheed Martin Troy, Alabama is funded for approximately 1,100 missiles in FY26, of which ~25% is the JASSM-ER variant likely employed in Epic Fury; GBU-57 MOP production sits at low double-digit annual rates, with the entire pre-Epic-Fury inventory thought to number under 30 weapons. Replacement of any MOP expended at Iranian deeply-buried hard targets (DBHT) against the Fordow-class enrichment-facility profile is therefore measured in years, not months.

The general-purpose bomb (GPB) line is more elastic. GBU-31 JDAM kits are mature and General Dynamics OTS Garland and Boeing produce at scale; the constraint is on the bomb body itself — Mk-82 (500 lb / 227 kg) and Mk-84 (2,000 lb / 907 kg) bodies fill at McAlester Army Ammunition Plant (MCAAP) Oklahoma, with explosive-fill throughput dependent on energetics availability. The Joint Munitions Command (JMC) has consolidated 155 mm and air-delivered fill operations at MCAAP and Holston Army Ammunition Plant (HSAAP), the same facilities under multi-year procurement authority recently extended through FY32 by the FY26 Department of Defense Appropriations Act.

Personnel and Safety Considerations

For ammunition logistics personnel, the operational implication is sustained AAFES-style theatre throughput at the Class V (ammunition) supply category running well above peacetime rates. Forward Ammunition Holding Areas (AHAs) and Theatre Storage Areas (TSAs) supporting Epic Fury must be sited per AASTP-1 inhabited-building distance (IBD) and public traffic route distance (PTRD) tables, with HD 1.1 stockpile concentrations driving Quantity-Distance (QD) calculations. The 395th Ordnance Company’s African Lion 26 deployment (cited in DVIDS reporting on 27 April 2026) demonstrates the parallel CONUS-to-EUCOM/AFRICOM ammunition-flow tempo that Epic Fury overlays. Render-safe and disposal protocols for damaged or low-order PGMs follow IATG 11.10 and US Army TM 9-1300-214 guidance.

Data Gaps

DATA GAP: Pentagon has not disclosed the per-weapon expenditure breakdown by munition type. DATA GAP: Stockpile remaining for TLAM, JASSM-ER and GBU-57 not in open source. DATA GAP: No public targeting summary for Iranian DBHT engagement. DATA GAP: Israel Defense Forces (IDF) munitions consumption from US-supplied stocks (presumed AGM-114 Hellfire, GBU-39 Small Diameter Bomb, Mk-83 1,000-lb bombs) not separated from US obligation totals. DATA GAP: The supplemental funding request size has not been quantified.

AI-assisted technical assessment based on open-source material. Not a formal intelligence product. Image attribution noted where applicable.